On Tuesday morning, I went ont Internet and wrote a bit. I then met up with Soppygit with whom I sat in an empty classroom. We felt so rebellious, as we're not even supposed to be on campus, much less eating and chatting in the seminar rooms.

Int evening, I decided to go to see some metal bands I'd never heard of in Nodnol. I may have found Nodnol's answer to Melbourne's metal scene . . . or perhaps not. The set-up was hauntingly familiar: there I am, walking along a city street I don't know, trying to find a pub. Once I get there, the door person asks who I'm there to see, for her tally.

But after that, it was all strange. The venue part of The Hope And Anchor (which is all famous and stuff) turned out to be a tiny bare-brick-walled basement, with a little triangular stage about eight inches off the ground. I liked it.

I'm always torn as to how to best write about bands. I appreciate that none of my regular readers actually cares what they were like, but the goth and metal scenes are little-known and good, and I want to give more back to them than what I pay for tickets. On the one hand, I can't be bothered to go into anywhere near the level of detail I'd use when writing for Kaleidoscope magazine; on the other, I like pretty much everything, so just saying, "It was all good" doesn't help anyone.

This time, though, I'll spare you the details, as I have little idea which band was which, or even if they were who the flier said they were (Nebukadnezza, The Semblance, Square Zero and The Voice). But, whoever they were, they were absolutely superb, considering I only paid £4.50 to get in. All of them were power trios and the sound was good throughout.

Between bands, they played various songs off "The Best Punk Album In The World Ever". Always nice to hear "Jilted John" on a night out, but a slightly bizarre choice all the same. And the clientele consisted of about ten obviously metal people, seemingly all friends of the bands, a lot of normal-looking people of about my age, and some middle-aged Japanese people, seemingly tourists. Weird.

I met a few of the metal people, but when I got on the tube back to Smill's, I realised I'd forgotten to hand out flyers for the UKC punk night. But! There were some punks on the tube, so I gave them to them! Then I met this drunk nurse, who was really happy I'd seen a band called The Voice, asked if I'd found true love, asked for the green heart sticker still stuck to my arm, kissed me on the cheek and told me to remember I was a princess.

Yeeeeah. I've got to do that again. I know it's oddly anti-social, going off and seeing bands on one's own all the time, but I don't know anyone else whose thirst for metaaal and disregard for their bank balance matches mine.

On Wednesday, I got up early to walk Smill to the tube station, then, in the interest of saving money, stayed in her flat to write. And I wrote for eight and a half hours! Metal! I manage to be that productive, ooh, maybe twice a year, so yay!

Int evening, I went to see more metal bands. I'd never been to a gig in The Electric Ballroom before either, but I found it was a baaaad place. Ok, the layout means it's not as crushed as at most venues, but there's a Virgin opposite it, so I went in there and found an At The Gates album for £8. Bargain, but not a purchase I'd been planning to make. Also, the wall beside the stage is mirrored and far too convincing, so I kept thinking the wall was made of glass and another band that looked oddly like the one I was watching were playing in the "next room".

I wasn't expecting much from the first band, Hatesphere, as they were on before Ektomorf, but I was pleasantly surprised, despite the level of puerile goriness they professed their lyrics contained (it's not like you can ever make them out at thrash gigs).

The one Ektomorf song I've heard made me laugh: it mostly goes "I know them, I know them, I know them, I know them!" which is well brutal, but it also contains a line that sounds for all the world like "They want to take away" either "my evil shirt" or "my evil shares" (seemingly actually "emotions"). Their other songs were better, though, and they put on a good show.

Dark Tranquility I like but was slightly disappointed with last time I saw them. I'm still not convinced all their songs are well suited to live performance, but most were thoroughly enjoyable and they had a better presence on the Electric Ballroom's smaller stage.

Kreator, I went to see on the strength that I should like them - a famous (in certain circles anyway) German thrash metal band - rather than the fact that I did. I'd only heard a couple of their songs, and while they weren't by any means bad, they didn't leave much of an impression either. But !!! Satan, they're good! Maybe a bit samey, but with a recipe like theirs, who wants variety? Their front man, as well as doing some worryingly amazing guitar playing, was also impressively EVIL, despite showing a sense of humour too. He wasn't on the same level as some black metal frontmen I've seen, who I was convinced were actually dead, but when he claimed he'd written a song in 1922, I was willing to believe him. He didn't ask us if we were ready / ready to rock / ready to go beeping mental, but if we were ready to kill *throat slitting gesture* which should have sounded cheesy, but didn't. Oh yeah! METAAAAAAAAAL!!!

Sorry. I'll calm down now. Or maybe not, because Sunday I get to see motherbeeping Enslaved again! YEEEEEAH!

In other news, thigh-high stripy socks are lovely and warm. Highly recommended, if you can get them for less than the fiver street vendors normally sell them for, even if your gender suggests you don't wear such things.

Today, I went to a lecture. I felt so subversive!